I Bet You Didn’t Know These Facts About India

India has always been a land of importance, a jewel in the east and a land of various diversities. Today India is seen as one of the developing nation that has lot of potential. A land full of diversities in terms of culture, cuisine, people, languages, landscapes, architecture etc. India had a rich historic past. Many historians around the world believe that India was once a very educated nation for many scientists hailed from this country.

Following we have listed 50 interesting facts that you probably didn’t know about India

1. Hindi and English are the official languages of India. The government also recognizes 17 other languages that include Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Nepali, Manipuri, Konkani, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu. Apart from these languages, about 1,652 dialects are spoken in the country
2. India was one of the richest countries on earth until the British invasion in the early 17th century.
3. India invented the number system and Aryabhatta was the scientist who invented the digit zero.
4. Chess was invented in India. The original word for “chess” is the Sanskrit chaturanga, meaning “four members of an army”—which were mostly likely elephants, horses, chariots and foot soldiers.
5. India is the 6th largest country in the world, the largest democracy and one of the oldest civilization.
6. India has the most number of mosques. It has 300,000 mosques which is much more than the Muslim world.
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8. India is one of the largest exporter of computer software products.
9. Before 1986, India was the only place in the world where Diamonds could be found.
10. The biggest and the largest employer in the world is Indian railways employing over a million people.
11. India has the most number of post offices in the world, with 150,000 post offices. However, it is not unusual for a letter to take two weeks to travel just 30 miles.
12. It is illegal to take Indian currency (rupees) out of India.
13. India leads the world with the most murders (32,719), with Russia taking second at 28,904 murders per year.
14. India has one of the world’s highest rates of abortion.
15. More than a million Indians are millionaires, yet most Indians live on less than two dollars a day. An estimated 35% of India’s population lives below the poverty line.
16. India is the world’s largest producer of dried beans, such as kidney beans and chickpeas. It also leads the world in banana exports; Brazil is second.
17. Every major world religion is represented in India. Additionally, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism all originated in India.
18. About 80% of Indians are Hindu. Muslims are the largest minority in India and form approximately 13% of the country’s population. In fact, India has the third largest population of Muslims in the world, after Indonesia and Pakistan.
19. India has the world’s largest movie industry, based in the city of Mumbai (known as the “City of Dreams”). The B in “Bollywood” comes from Bombay, the former name for Mumbai. Almost all Bollywood movies are musicals.
20. The banyan, or Indian fig tree, is considered a symbol of immortality and is mentioned in many Indian myths and legends. This self-renewing plant is India’s national tree.
21. Most historians agree that the first recorded account of plastic surgery is found in ancient Indian Sanskrit texts.
22. India’s pastoral communities are largely dependent on dairy and have made India the largest milk-producing country in the world.
23. India has the world’s third largest road network at 1.9 million miles. It also has the world’s second largest rail network, which is the world’s largest civilian employer with 16 million workers.
24. India experiences six seasons: summer, autumn, winter, spring, summer monsoon, and winter monsoon
25. India is the world’s largest tea producer, and tea (chai) is its most popular beverage.
26. When the first independent prime minister of India, pacifist Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964), was featured in Vogue, his distinctive close fitting, single-breasted jacket briefly became an important fashion statement for the Mod movement in the West. Named the Nehru jacket, the prime minister’s coat was popularized by the Beatles and worn by such famous people as Johnny Carson (1925-2005) and Sammy Davis Jr. (1925-1990).
27. In India’s 100,000 years of history, it has never invaded any other country.
28. India is the 7th largest country in the world, the largest democracy and one of the oldest civilizations.
29. The value of “pi” used in mathematics was first calculated by the Indian mathematician Budhayana in 6th century.
30. India is home to the world’s largest pilgrimage destination called the Vishnu Temple. The temple is located in the city of Tirupati. About an average of 30,000 people visit this temple donating about $6 million US dollars, everyday.
31. Yoga was originated in India about 5,000 years ago.
32. India is one of only three countries that makes supercomputers (the US and Japan are the other two).
33. India is one of six countries that launches satellites.
34. The Bombay stock exchange lists more than 6,600 companies only after NYSE.
35. Eight Indian companies are listed on the NYSE; three on the NASDAQ.
36. By volume of pills produced, the Indian pharmaceutical industry is the world’s second largest after China.
37. India has the second largest community of software developers, after the U.S.
38. India has the second largest network of paved highways, after the U.S.
39. India is among the top five producers of sugar, cotton, tea, coffee, spices, rubber, silk, and fish.
40. 100  of the Fortune 500 companies have R&D facilities in India.
41. Two million people of Indian origin live in the U.S.
42. Indian-born Americans are among the most affluent and best educated of the recent immigrant groups in the U.S.
43. Thirty percent of the R&D researchers in American pharmaceutical companies are Indian Americans.
44. Nearly 49% of the high-tech start-ups in silicon Valley and Washington, D.C. are owned by Indians or Indian-Americans.
45. India sends more students to U.S. colleges than any country in the world. In 2004-2005, over 80,000 Indian students entered the U.S. China sent only 65,000 students during the same time.
46. Ayurveda is known to mankind as being the “earliest school of medicine”. Charaka, the father of medicine consolidated this form of medicine about 2500 years ago.
47. In 700 B.C the world’s first university was set up in Taxila.
48. The highest cricket ground in the world is in Chail in the state of Himachal Pradesh. The pitch is about 2444 meters above the sea level and was built in1893.
49. Till 1896, India happened to be the only source of diamonds in the world.
50. The highest bridge in the world is the Bailey bridge, which is situated in Ladakh between the Dras and Suru rivers in the Himalayan mountain range.
51. Sushrata is considered to be the father of surgery. Over 2600 years back, Sushrata along with his team conducted complicated surgeries such as artificial limbs, cataracts, urinary stones etc.
52. The Maha Kumbh mela in Allahabad which happens every 12 years is the largest religious gathering in the world (70 million)
53. Equations were used by Sridharacharya in the 11th century. The largest numbers the Greeks and the Romans used were 106 whereas Hindus used numbers as big as 10*53 (i.e. 10 to the power of 53) with specific names as early as 5000 B.C. in Vedic mathematics. Even today, the largest used number is Terra: 10*12(10 to the power of 12).
54. About 50% of the residents in India are under 25 years old.
55. There where no plastic bags in India before 1985.
56. The only country in the world that has a Bill of Rights for Cows is India.
57. The longest station name on the Indian Railways is Venkatanarasimharajuvariapeta.
58. The number of births that occur in India each year is higher than the entire population of Australia.
59. India used sugar before any other country.
60. India is the world’s number one producer of vegetarian cheese.
61. India buys more gold than any other country.